>15 kHz? (+Master filtering)
Posted: 23 Sep 2019
Be it mixing, or mastering, doesn't matter. General audio engineering.
I was confused so far, thinking every engineer does low pass filtering. This might have come from when I read tons of articles about mastering for vinyl.
For modern media, it's definitely not a requirement to apply LPF. However, I kind of worry about frequencies above 15 kHz, since during adulthood, supposedly, our ears get less sensitive in those regions. I think, my top is about 17 kHz, with a sine tone test, above that, not much I could hear.
Now, if I don't hear anything after a certain point, then I'm afraid I could mess up the equalization.
Generally, most mastering engineers say 'f*cking don't'. This is nice and all, but I see people asking this question on forums - but there's never an answer to it.
I learned an interesting thing, though: they say, not to touch the final mix with filters. Honestly, I feel a linear phase filter doesn't wreck the mix - although of course, I can just filter mix channels individually. Still, when it comes to the mix-down, some low frequency rumble can still happen, especially if you add master effects (most commonly filter sweeps), or take the final mix-down and do some slicing and creatively play around with the waveform (such as glitching/juggling effects).
All in all, question is:
- what to do with frequencies one might not hear?
- can master-filtering (meaning engineering, not as an effect) really be safely avoided?
I was confused so far, thinking every engineer does low pass filtering. This might have come from when I read tons of articles about mastering for vinyl.
For modern media, it's definitely not a requirement to apply LPF. However, I kind of worry about frequencies above 15 kHz, since during adulthood, supposedly, our ears get less sensitive in those regions. I think, my top is about 17 kHz, with a sine tone test, above that, not much I could hear.
Now, if I don't hear anything after a certain point, then I'm afraid I could mess up the equalization.
Generally, most mastering engineers say 'f*cking don't'. This is nice and all, but I see people asking this question on forums - but there's never an answer to it.
I learned an interesting thing, though: they say, not to touch the final mix with filters. Honestly, I feel a linear phase filter doesn't wreck the mix - although of course, I can just filter mix channels individually. Still, when it comes to the mix-down, some low frequency rumble can still happen, especially if you add master effects (most commonly filter sweeps), or take the final mix-down and do some slicing and creatively play around with the waveform (such as glitching/juggling effects).
All in all, question is:
- what to do with frequencies one might not hear?
- can master-filtering (meaning engineering, not as an effect) really be safely avoided?